Feedback on Overwintering

dbonsaiw

Omono
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Just some feedback on my overwintering - We had a decent freeze the other day and I decided to take a tree out of my mulch pile to see what's going on. I had to chisel the pot out of the mulch as it was a frozen block. There's about 2 inches of mulch on the trees and the pots are buried. Removing the frozen "donut" of mulch from the pot, the soil underneath was not frozen and moist. The mulch surrounding the hole where the tree was sitting was also not frozen and there were worms just a few inches down happy and warm.

My garage is a POS (holes and such) and, with a tent set up in the garage, the temps never got below freezing as far as I can tell (there's a thermostat in there with a reading showing in my house).

I seem to like the mulch system for overwintering (something about being outdoors, as opposed to a dry, dirty and dusty garage), and only use the garage for those trees that have opened/been repotted and need to shuffle. I'm going to invest in a large plastic greenhouse to protect from wind for next season. At some point, I will likely move to a more temperature controlled setting - at least something that I can heat when temps are frigid and cool when things are unseasonably warm.

I was pleasantly surprised how well the mulch performed and have much less anxiety about winter (it's still winter, though). The trees will survive in the mulch pile. On inspection of my trees, however, I am finding a fair amount of die back on the tips of branches. Right now I don't really care, as all of my trees are in development. As my trees develop branches I want to keep, I feel I will need to be more vigilant and perhaps a more controlled environment.

Question - What do folks do with all the old mulch? If I just leave it in the yard, my yard will be a few feet higher in a few years.
 

Dav4

Drop Branch Murphy
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Just some feedback on my overwintering - We had a decent freeze the other day and I decided to take a tree out of my mulch pile to see what's going on. I had to chisel the pot out of the mulch as it was a frozen block. There's about 2 inches of mulch on the trees and the pots are buried. Removing the frozen "donut" of mulch from the pot, the soil underneath was not frozen and moist. The mulch surrounding the hole where the tree was sitting was also not frozen and there were worms just a few inches down happy and warm.

My garage is a POS (holes and such) and, with a tent set up in the garage, the temps never got below freezing as far as I can tell (there's a thermostat in there with a reading showing in my house).

I seem to like the mulch system for overwintering (something about being outdoors, as opposed to a dry, dirty and dusty garage), and only use the garage for those trees that have opened/been repotted and need to shuffle. I'm going to invest in a large plastic greenhouse to protect from wind for next season. At some point, I will likely move to a more temperature controlled setting - at least something that I can heat when temps are frigid and cool when things are unseasonably warm.

I was pleasantly surprised how well the mulch performed and have much less anxiety about winter (it's still winter, though). The trees will survive in the mulch pile. On inspection of my trees, however, I am finding a fair amount of die back on the tips of branches. Right now I don't really care, as all of my trees are in development. As my trees develop branches I want to keep, I feel I will need to be more vigilant and perhaps a more controlled environment.

Question - What do folks do with all the old mulch? If I just leave it in the yard, my yard will be a few feet higher in a few years.
I'll take the left over mulch and use it in the landscape around my house.

I'm glad your overwintering efforts have worked well for you. I've been using wood chip mulch to overwinter many of my trees for almost 25 years and, in that time, I've never lost a tree to winter cold. The only trees lost were maple seedlings debarked by mice.
 

dbonsaiw

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I'll take the left over mulch and use it in the landscape around my house.
All yours if you want it. And please take last year's as well. Problem is that, except for the layer on top which is all natural, the rest is the Home Depot dyed stuff. I tried to give it away to a friend who started a business growing micro greens, but she didn't want the dyed stuff.
 

Dav4

Drop Branch Murphy
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All yours if you want it. And please take last year's as well. Problem is that, except for the layer on top which is all natural, the rest is the Home Depot dyed stuff. I tried to give it away to a friend who started a business growing micro greens, but she didn't want the dyed stuff.
No no no... I'll take MY left over mulch from overwintered trees and spread it under landscape trees. I don't want yours;).
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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Just some feedback on my overwintering - We had a decent freeze the other day and I decided to take a tree out of my mulch pile to see what's going on. I had to chisel the pot out of the mulch as it was a frozen block. There's about 2 inches of mulch on the trees and the pots are buried. Removing the frozen "donut" of mulch from the pot, the soil underneath was not frozen and moist. The mulch surrounding the hole where the tree was sitting was also not frozen and there were worms just a few inches down happy and warm.

My garage is a POS (holes and such) and, with a tent set up in the garage, the temps never got below freezing as far as I can tell (there's a thermostat in there with a reading showing in my house).

I seem to like the mulch system for overwintering (something about being outdoors, as opposed to a dry, dirty and dusty garage), and only use the garage for those trees that have opened/been repotted and need to shuffle. I'm going to invest in a large plastic greenhouse to protect from wind for next season. At some point, I will likely move to a more temperature controlled setting - at least something that I can heat when temps are frigid and cool when things are unseasonably warm.

I was pleasantly surprised how well the mulch performed and have much less anxiety about winter (it's still winter, though). The trees will survive in the mulch pile. On inspection of my trees, however, I am finding a fair amount of die back on the tips of branches. Right now I don't really care, as all of my trees are in development. As my trees develop branches I want to keep, I feel I will need to be more vigilant and perhaps a more controlled environment.

Question - What do folks do with all the old mulch? If I just leave it in the yard, my yard will be a few feet higher in a few years.
I spread it on my front yard flower beds and along the woodlot line to keep poison ivy down.

Also FWIW, the interior of the mulch pile on my trees says unfrozen mostly until mid-Jan. A succession of teens to low teens in that period will freeze the mulch and ultimatley the soil in pots all the way through. It typically stays frozen until mid-Feb.-which lags warm days in that month, pushing dormancy break to early March. The warmer winters in the last few years have short-circuited all of that.
 
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Deep Sea Diver

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I was pleasantly surprised how well the mulch performed and have much less anxiety about winter (it's still winter, though). The trees will survive in the mulch pile. On inspection of my trees, however, I am finding a fair amount of die back on the tips of branches. Right now I don't really care, as all of my trees are in development. As my trees develop branches I want to keep, I feel I will need to be more vigilant and perhaps a more controlled environment.

Really glad your set up worked out! Well done!

My major issue this year for the outside trees was the @%!!$& rabbits taste testing our trees… including conifers… who woulda not thought about that? So I never got to see the fine growth on some of these trees.

Anyways, since I wrote the wintering over resource I’ve been quizzing even more bonsai practitioners, including a number of professional practitioner. The consensus, even here is that fine branching often suffers, especially on deciduous trees during cold spells.

Last night was Dennis Vojtilla‘s turn for the question. He’s in Portland OR. His take is to protect any deciduous trees as he’s experienced freeze damage to the fine growth…Lost one tree a couple years after he moved up from CA. Then tried moving in and out to garage. He ended up putting all his trees in coldframes or cold greenhouses.

So if one has the ability to protect their trees, it will be worth your while (and your backs) in the long run.

Here are are a couple of Dennis’s trees … the Western Hawthorn in the back of his rig is a National winner. The last is a grape he’s been working on.

0ED72274-3B63-49FE-BF85-C00853F6EC1D.jpeg6EB05F91-C3A8-44A2-AB34-D5F9F5FAE256.jpeg874CD611-A63B-44B6-B3D9-4956B0121EE0.jpeg56C0AD61-AAE6-484F-868B-F5994158D5B7.jpeg

cheers
DSD sends
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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Really glad your set up worked out! Well done!

My major issue this year for the outside trees was the @%!!$& rabbits taste testing our trees… including conifers… who woulda not thought about that? So I never got to see the fine growth on some of these trees.

Anyways, since I wrote the wintering over resource I’ve been quizzing even more bonsai practitioners, including a number of professional practitioner. The consensus, even here is that fine branching often suffers, especially on deciduous trees during cold spells.

Last night was Dennis Vojtilla‘s turn for the question. He’s in Portland OR. His take is to protect any deciduous trees as he’s experienced freeze damage to the fine growth…Lost one tree a couple years after he moved up from CA. Then tried moving in and out to garage. He ended up putting all his trees in coldframes or cold greenhouses.

So if one has the ability to protect their trees, it will be worth your while (and your backs) in the long run.

Here are are a couple of Dennis’s trees … the Western Hawthorn in the back of his rig is a National winner. The last is a grape he’s been working on.

View attachment 474699View attachment 474700View attachment 474701View attachment 474702

cheers
DSD sends
Yes, fine twigging can take a beating SOMETIMES, depending on the weather. The finer twigging on my trees (particularly the maples) takes more of a beating every year from squirrels and chipmunks in winters here, though.

If you have access to a large cold greenhouse for storage, I highly recommend it. Have been using one for years for select trees. Unless you build your own (and small ones from Amazon typically only make problems), storage in those facilities isn't cheap because heat is required to keep temps above 30 F or so. Your trees also need care while in the facility --primarily watering and moving in and out during warm ups--so that adds on to costs as well.
 
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